David Harbour talks about battle with bipolar disorder

“Stranger Things” star David Harbour has opened up about his battle with bipolar disorder, saying that he was once committed to an asylum.

The actor said that his battle with mental illness on WTF podcast, explaining he was diagnosed bipolar when he was 25, reports aceshowbiz.com.

Harbour said: “Here’s the interesting thing, which I have actually never truly spoken about publicly. I actually was in this Catholicism thing… and I was sober for, like, a year and a half… and I actually did have a manic episode and I was diagnosed as bipolar.”

“I really had a bit of a break where I thought I was in connection to some sort of God that I wasn’t really in connection to. It was like I had all the answers suddenly,” he added.

His parents subsequently committed him and he said that the experience was not what he thought it was going to be.

“I have one thing to say about the mental asylum. I’ve romanticised two things in my life and both have fallen short. One is being in a mental asylum. Really, really not as fun as you think it is. You do have a romantic idea of it… and it just ends up being sad and smells like s**t.”

“Have you ever been to a mental asylum'” he asked.

“The only thing that defines a crazy person and a normal person – because you can seem very normal as a crazy person – is they are convinced they are sane. Crazy people are convinced they are sane. It’s incredible.”

Harbour is now medicated and claims he has figured out what triggers his bipolar episodes – and knows what he needs to do to cope with them.